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Sans titre (Côtes d'Armor)
Jacques Robert
Painting - 80 x 120 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 47.2 x 0.8 inch
$6,586
Miami Beach NYE.
Luca Artioli
Photography - 114.3 x 177.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 45 x 70 x 0.1 inch
$5,000
Sous les nuages, l'arc en ciel
Alexandra Battezzati
Painting - 120 x 150 x 4.5 cm Painting - 47.2 x 59.1 x 1.8 inch
$6,140
Take care Baby!
Mehdi Mirbagheri
Painting - 120 x 120 x 1 cm Painting - 47.2 x 47.2 x 0.4 inch
$6,698
Berlin, Allemagne, novembre 1989
Eric Bouvet
Photography - 40 x 50 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 19.7 x 0 inch
$1,060
Coffee Red
Jennifer Gilligan
Painting - 11.43 x 16.51 x 0.6 cm Painting - 4.5 x 6.5 x 0.2 inch
$1,038
Coffee Blue
Jennifer Gilligan
Painting - 19.05 x 24.13 x 0.6 cm Painting - 7.5 x 9.5 x 0.2 inch
$1,083
Incense Debris
Shine Huang
Photography - 101.6 x 81.3 x 0.3 cm Photography - 40 x 32 x 0.1 inch
$3,500
Noce dans le Berry, L'épreuve du feu, gage de longévité
Pierre Boulat
Photography - 30 x 40 x 0.3 cm Photography - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0.1 inch
$837
Hiding in Italy - Piazza di Spagna
Liu Bolin
Photography - 68 x 90 cm Photography - 26.8 x 35.4 inch
$13,730
Manchas de luz I
Ana María Nava
Sculpture - 50 x 50 x 30 cm Sculpture - 19.7 x 19.7 x 11.8 inch
$7,758
Paralelas Vibrantes
Jesús-Rafael Soto
Sculpture - 43 x 25 x 24 cm Sculpture - 16.9 x 9.8 x 9.4 inch
$15,628
Cross my heart and hope to die
Rossella Mercedes
Fine Art Drawings - 42 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 16.5 x 11.7 x 0 inch
$307
Sans titre (Deauville)
Philippe Ramette
Photography - 100 x 80 cm Photography - 39.4 x 31.5 inch
$11,832
This Wayward Floating Body (Antarctica)
Jessica Houston
Photography - 55.9 x 83.8 cm Photography - 22 x 33 inch
$3,349
Balade d'amoureux
Tanguy Mendrisse
Photography - 30 x 24 x 0.2 cm Photography - 11.8 x 9.4 x 0.1 inch
$112
Confrontació V/09
Josep María Codina
Painting - 82 x 100 x 15 cm Painting - 32.3 x 39.4 x 5.9 inch
$4,599
If Held To The Light
Jessica Houston
Painting - 51 x 51 x 2 cm Painting - 20.1 x 20.1 x 0.8 inch
$3,237
Blooming Apple Tree - original sunny landscape
Nikolay Dmitriev
Painting - 25 x 30 x 0.3 cm Painting - 9.8 x 11.8 x 0.1 inch
$781
White peony on a black background
Nataliia Krykun
Painting - 120 x 120 x 4 cm Painting - 47.2 x 47.2 x 1.6 inch
$3,907
White tree branches - minimalism nature garden 3d textured cement
Nataliia Krykun
Painting - 150 x 120 x 4 cm Painting - 59.1 x 47.2 x 1.6 inch
$4,465
White geometric seascape - 3D texture minimalism
Nataliia Krykun
Painting - 120 x 120 x 4 cm Painting - 47.2 x 47.2 x 1.6 inch
$3,907
Un pour tous, tous pour un… (Album d’enfants)
Olivier Messas
Sculpture - 36 x 30 x 5 cm Sculpture - 14.2 x 11.8 x 2 inch
$2,233
Faces of health: The multi-faceted hygieia decor
Dervis Akdemir
Sculpture - 33 x 20 x 20 cm Sculpture - 13 x 7.9 x 7.9 inch
$209
Ichimane à la fleur blanche
Christy
Painting - 41 x 31 x 2 cm Painting - 16.1 x 12.2 x 0.8 inch
$949
Jusqu'à la lie - série objets détournés
Jackie Spaeter
Painting - 90 x 30 x 2 cm Painting - 35.4 x 11.8 x 0.8 inch
$558
Trois merveilles - série Végétal
Jackie Spaeter
Painting - 70 x 50 x 2 cm Painting - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$726
Abstract Horizone - Diamond Series K1GR4
Roger König
Painting - 120 x 80 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0.8 inch
$14,679
Sunny St Louis
Alain Le Garsmeur
Photography - 30 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$508
Savannah Façade
Alain Le Garsmeur
Photography - 25 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 9.8 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$380
Santa Maria Smoke
Alain Le Garsmeur
Photography - 25 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 9.8 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$380
San Francisco Escapes
Alain Le Garsmeur
Photography - 30 x 25 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 9.8 x 0 inch
$380
Horse Paddock - Limited Edition Archival Pigment Print
Alain Le Garsmeur
Photography - 30 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$508
White
In physics, white is the sum of all the colours. To the human eye, white appears to be the total absence of colour. Amongst artists, white and its many uses in art are continuously evolving and challenging those who would embrace them. Is white, then, a non-colour, or an enhancer of colours? Intangible or material? Absence or excess?
Since Antiquity, white has been appreciated for its symbolic value. In Ancient Greece, where they would paint their statues, it was a sign of incompletion, whereas the Romans believed it showed pomp and imperialist virtue. With the rise of Christianity, white was used in opposition to black in order to emphasise moral dichotomies: the pure, divine white against the darkness. In some cases, however, white was used to show sickness or death, most notably in the pallid representations of the skeletal, crucified Christ.
In the Renaissance white was used to sublimate faces and backgrounds. Da Vinci even based his sfumato technique on the soft transition from light into darkness. Throughout the history of painting, white was considered precious for its ability to reflect light. It attracts the gaze even when used in the tiniest quantities, and illuminates the subject, drawing out stunning contrasts as seen in the works of Rembrandt, or in Vermeer's famous Girl with the Pearl Earring.
With the rise of Impressionism, white was used as the brightest tone amongst shades of grey. While Manet produced canvases which were forerunners to monochromes, including The Reader, which was almost pure white, Monet delivered a stunning gradient of whites whilst recreating the snow at his home in Giverny. The first true white monochrome appeared with the arrival of Malevitch's White Square on a White Background. The artist said 'I have broken the blue boundary of colour limits, and come out into the white'.
Modernists were equally passionate about white and valued it incredibly highly. Miro in particular questioned the status of white on canvases. In his painting Woman, Bird and Star white is in parts boldly painted, but is also distinctive for its absence around the star. Picasso, on the other hand, explored white in conjunction with his famous coloured periods. Piero Manzoni became famous thanks to his 'achromatic' paintings, a series of canvases produced exclusively in shades of white. Moving into the 20th century, white became synonymous with minimalist abstraction. For artists like Kandinsky, white was a cosmic colour, associated with a spiritual search for the absolute, guiding the artists as he seek to express his emotions.
Today, white remains an ever popular subject. Roman Opalka made his name creating a series of white numbers of a white background, while Daniel Arsham reinvents white walls in galleries by letting his artwork drip down onto them. White is a colour with multiple symbolic interpretations. The colour of divinity or humility; of purity and immaculate, of emptiness and absence, but always colour. If blue has Klein and red has Rothko, it appears that no artist has yet succeeded in fully mastering white – but maybe you'll find them in our selection!